A standard mixing-faucet shower body is mounted on a wall with the aid of two offset connecting pipes or fittings that can be rotated to provide the necessary center-to-center spacing. Respective nuts are screwed onto outer portions of these offset pipes to couple same to the faucet body. Clearly these offset pipes are not attractive so it is standard to provide an escutcheon assembly to dress them up.
German utility model 1,900,057 describes an escutcheon assembly comprised of two coaxial telescoping sleeves interconnected by an external screwthread on the rear end of the inner sleeve and an internal screwthread running the entire length of the interior of the outer sleeve. This assembly is screwed down so the inner sleeve is wholly within the outer sleeve and is slipped over the respective pipe prior to connection to the faucet body. Once the connection is made, the two parts are screwed apart to bear outward on the faucet body and inward on the wall, completely filling the space between the wall and the body.
While such an arrangement does indeed provide an attractive appearance once installed, it is quite difficult to extend it during initial installation and to shorten it if later access is needed to the mounting nuts to work on the faucet. Getting a grip on the inner sleeve so it can be rotated relative to the outer sleeve is very difficult.